From left former Cabinet Secretaries Aden Duale (Defence) Alice Wahome (Lands) Soipan Tuya (Environment) and Kipchumba Murkomen (Transport and Roads )
When the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) announced that Chama cha Kazi’s Chege wa Njuguna had garnered 12,313 votes in a loss to UDA’s Alice Wahome, all seemed lost for the former.
Ms Wahome’s 22,929 votes meant that she had retained the Kandara seat for a third consecutive time.
Then President William Ruto dangled the carrot that is a Cabinet position, and Ms Wahome happily resigned to take up the new role, despite having lower job security.
Ms Wahome was first appointed Water and Sanitation CS before being moved to the Lands docket in a reshuffle last year.
In the now famous Kenyan joke dubbed kuoga na kurudi soko (showering and returning to the market), Mr Njuguna dumped Chama cha Kazi and joined UDA before successfully contesting the Kandara seat in the by-election.
Following President Ruto’s move to fire his entire Cabinet on Thursday, Ms Wahome is now jobless as the man she floored in the 2022 elections is now the UDA-elected Kandara MP.
But Ms Wahome is not the only person who may be looking back at 2022 decisions with regret.
Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen was the only Senator that Elgeyo Marakwet residents had known and trusted since the start of devolution.
The 141,091 votes that Mr Murkomen got in the 2022 polls were more than enough to secure a third consecutive term as Senator. His closest competitor, Alex Tolgos, managed just 20,648 votes.
Murkomen abandoned his parliamentary seat after he secured an appointment as Transport and Roads Cabinet secretary.
In the Garissa Township race, Aden Bare Duale had secured a fourth consecutive term as MP, having got 9,905 votes against Abdulahi Mohamoud who got 5,509 votes.
The former National Assembly majority leader also quit to take up the post of Defence cabinet secretary.
In Narok, Rosalind Soipan Tuya seemed to have gotten a soft landing after opting not to run for Narok County Woman Representative for a third time in the 2022 elections.
Despite keeping off the polls, the UDA Party nominated Ms Tuya to the Senate.
When President Ruto’s Cabinet was named, she resigned from Parliament to take up the new role as Environment Cabinet secretary.
But on Thursday, the four moved from the fold and into the cold following President Ruto’s decision to fire his entire Cabinet, save for Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi.
The President said in a statement that he would reconstitute his Cabinet after extensive consultations.
